That the second part of the double episode with which the last season of The walking dead (Frank Darabont and Angela Kang, since 2010) picking up exactly where the previous one had left off is pure good sense. Deal with the cliffhangers, those difficult tessitura in which the characters remain at the end of a chapter, it seems the most logical; like The Money Heist (Álex Pina, since 2017) in the first moments of his new installment.
But the American director Kevin Dowling (The Americans), who had also directed “Acheron: Part I” (11×01), he didn’t have to decide start with a different plane, in which the camera slowly approaches the life-threatening situation. And the screenwriters, Jim Barnes (Gotham) and Angela Kang herself (Terriers), they have their noses, not only to not solve it, but even to leave us worse than before, in an even more compromised position, and go to the titles.
This intriguing mechanism reminds us of the one The walking dead used, for example, in “Open Your Eyes” (10×07) with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan); and it can even take us back to the cheating use of the off-field in “Thank You” (6×03) with Glenn Rhee (Steven Yeun), which we cannot blame on Acheron: Part II”(11×02), of course, and that is absurd given what happens next in “Last Day on Earth” (6×16); although we do not know until “The Day Will Come When You Won’t Be” (7×01).
An extraordinary production design for ‘The Walking Dead’
They do not get us out of doubt on this matter soon. Instead, what follows are some sociopolitical references as there is already one in the previous chapter, very unexpected in fictions like this one that do not intend to launch any speech about it. They don’t really do it here either, and they only serve to some contextualization dramatic.
However, at the bottom of all the organizations and behavioral dilemmas that have arisen throughout The walking dead is political ethics, which governs conduct in society of all of us even though this one has collapsed in an apocalypse zombie; and there is no ideological or interpretive escape for such a circumstance, which does not make it an assessable artistic value.
On the other hand, the narration continues with two spots and groups of different characters, and the taste of the underground environment in one of them and the fabulous setting by retailer, responsibility of Marek Dobrowolski (The Company), Matthew C. Jacobs (Lost) and Gia Grosso (A winter at the beach) in their specific departments: production design, art direction and set decoration. It is worth saying, talking now about your great work for The walking dead, because it is not usually recognized very often in recaps like this.
Opportunities to show off, horrors and a new threat
We hope that the personal items discovered by Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) in “Acheron: Part II” will not end up as descriptive junk and will prove useful in the future. Also, Angela Kang and Jim Barnes give you a great opportunity to someone quite gray from “What Comes After” (9 × 05) to now to shine in sagacity and eloquence: former lawyer Yumiko (Eleanor Matsuura). In turn, Negan and Eugene Porter (Josh McDermitt) do the same.
And they throw us terrible moments reminiscent of others from “Spend” (5×14) about Noah (Tyler James Williams), a story by Maggie Rhee (Lauren Cohan) who, had she staged it, would be most horrible that has been seen in The walking dead, tense action zombie with some traveling much to be appreciated and, as a culmination, the obvious contrast of two encounters and a new threat that is unknown how long it will last. Not if things are what they seem in the two dramatic lights or we must hold on well because curves await us.